This invention relates to a connector mateable with a mating connector including a mating shell.
In many cases, this type of connector has a mated-state maintaining structure for maintaining a mated state thereof with a mating connector. For example, JP-A 2008-527651 (Patent Document 1) discloses a connector having the mated-state maintaining structure which is constituted of a friction lock; the content of Patent Document 1 is incorporated herein by reference.
Referring to FIG. 13, Patent Document 1 discloses a Universal Serial Bus (USB)-socket (connector) 910 as an existing connector. The USB-socket 910 is mateable with a USB-plug (mating connector) 950 including a metal housing (mating shell) 960. The metal housing 960 has an upper surface 962. At least the upper surface 962 is formed with two openings 964. The USB-socket 910 includes a receptacle shell 920. The receptacle shell 920 has an upper surface, wherein at least the upper surface is formed with two leaf springs 922 which are resiliently deformable in an upper-lower direction (Z-direction). When the USB-plug 950 is mated with the USB-socket 910, the metal housing 960 is inserted into the receptacle shell 920. In the meantime, ends of the leaf springs 922 are moved upward to slide on the upper surface 962 of the metal housing 960. Under a mated state where the USB-plug 950 is mated with the USB-socket 910, the ends of the leaf springs 922 are engaged with the openings 964 of the metal housing 960, respectively, to maintain the mated state.
When the USB-plug 950 is mated with the USB-socket 910, the ends of the leaf springs 922 are moved upward to project beyond the upper surface of the receptacle shell 920. Accordingly, in a case where the USB-socket 910 is installed in a host device 900 to be used, the host device 900 is required to be provided with a space where the ends of the leaf springs 922 are moved. In other words, the host device 900 is required to become larger in the upper-lower direction by the size of the aforementioned space. As can be seen from the above explanation, the existing mated-state maintaining structure is not suitable to reduce the size of the host device 900 in the upper-lower direction.